Written and Directed by Celine Song | 116 min | ▲▲▲▲
The playwright-turned-filmmaker Celine Song — who made her mark with her Oscar-nominated first feature Past Lives in 2023 — has returned with a terrific, if more mainstream, movie: Materialists featuring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal.
The trailer would have you believe this is a sparkling, New York romcom exploring a love triangle between a professional matchmaker, Lucy (Johnson), her struggling-actor ex-boyfriend, John (Evans), and an extremely successful businessman, Harry (Pascal). True love versus boundless wealth, what could be more perfect for a stylish, urban romantic comedy?
The marketing lies. Materialists is a thoughtful drama — not a comedy — with notes that channel movies as diverse as Gentleman Prefer Blondes and Nine and a Half Weeks, while really being about the unforgiving marketplace of dating, the ruthless commodification of human beings’ value while trying to find love.
Lucy is terminally single, this while asking her clients what they want and setting them up with potential mates. Those folks are intensely, sometimes painfully frank about their needs — including what they expect in body types, income, interests, and precise ages of their ideal partners. Some of this will seem particularly shallow, but within the frame of Manhattan’s hyper-demanding lifestyle, plausible. At a wedding whose bride and groom she introduced, Lucy is approached by Harry, who hits on her. Working catering at the same event is John, with whom Lucy has a history — there’s a flashback scene that crystalizes why the couple didn’t work out, which had a lot to do with lifestyle and income.
Not much has changed with John since he and Lucy dated, which makes him a dubious choice given Lucy’s own requirements. She needs her next partner to be wealthy. Then we’ve got Harry. He’s a total charmer and filthy rich.
These are the bones of that wistful and nonexistent romcom you will have picked up from the trailer. But the emotional heart of the film is quickly revealed to be Sophie (Zoe Winters), one of Lucy’s clients who struggles to find a partner. Lucy figures after almost a dozen first dates that she’s found the ideal guy for her — but then Sophie is assaulted.
Once again, Celine Song shows where her gifts lie, in gorgeous, insightful dialogue that scrapes away the predictable scenarios and makes her scenes dazzle, bringing out the best in her actors. Johnson is perfectly cast as someone who is emotionally aloof, but who we cheer for nonetheless — she’s never been better.
After a decade of superheroing, and a few questionable choices with his career since, Chris Evans does solid work here, convincing as a regular, handsome guy losing patience with his life goals and career path in light of Lucy, the one who got away. And Pascal, who is everywhere right now, offers a character we’ve never seen from him before — confident, self-aware, and entirely appealing, but also good at hiding his insecurities and vanity.
As well-written as it is, Materialists might have benefited from a little more sizzle and spike in the humour — the solemnity of some of the material could be lifted in places by a mordant, Elaine May-esque line or two to help deconstruct the circular, self-obsession of the New York dating scene. Also, as the score and graceful cinematography helps channel this story, not everything on screen is equally successful — a couple moments on the streets of New York feel a little stagey, though much of that is easily forgiven by Song’s theatrical origins. Her sharp gift with dialogue might be aided by an editor with a heavier hand.
But, I must reiterate, please don’t trust the trailer. This film is interested in laying bare the nuances and challenges of human relationships in the city, with stated truisms going back to the stone age. The complexities it plays with won’t be solved or seduced by genre cliches. That’s an idiosyncratic strength, even as it might not cleave to the expectations of Hollywood, or some in the audience.
